Friday, October 5, 2012

Grain corruption in India

A farmer who read my story about food aid to India being siphoned away from needy people by corrupt government officials suggested I check out Times Now television reporting from Punjab province.

I found a story about 70,000 tonnes of wheat rotting in storage, enough to feed two million people.

Some of it has been in storage for two to three years is so infested with bugs and rodents that have opened the bags that it's not even fit for livestock feed.

However, Times Now says some was being sold to distilleries to make liquor, sold at about a quarter to a third of the price the central government paid to buy it.

Government officials said "not a single grain" was sold to distilleries.
Times Now says 23 million people died of hunger last year.

What makes me doubly angry is that India was one of the main roadblocks to achieving a new world-trade agreement governing agriculture and food. The Indians claimed the world needs to step up and give them more help.

Maybe what they need is a swift kick in the rear end.